Legendary Midwest don and Chicago mafia boss Anthony (Tony the Big Tuna) Accardo ordered the bloodletting of an entire Outfit burglary almost 40 years ago. The crew of professional thieves he targeted had dared to rob Accardo’s suburban River Forest mansion on January 6, 1978 while Accardo was out of town vacationing in California. Accardo led the Italian mafia in the Windy City in one capacity or another from the 1940s until his death of natural causes in 1992. The burglary crew Accardo wiped out in the late 1970s was headed by John Mendell, an accomplished thief, convicted felon and gangland renegade. Mendell and five of his crew members were executed in less than a three-month span following the audacious break-in. Also falling victim to the Big Tuna’s purge was Accardo’s loose-lipped houseboy, two hit men who knew too much about the Godfather’s vengeful murder spree and one wiseguy who simply happened to be in the wrong place and the wrong time.

January 15, 1978 – Outfit burglar John Mendell disappears 11 days after leading a break-in of Accardo’s house as payback for Accardo ordering Mendell and his crew to return a giant score from the robbery of a jewelry store they had pulled off in the days before Christmas 1977. The owner of the jewelry store was a friend of Accardo’s and requested the Big Tuna’s aid in retrieving the stolen merchandise. Mendell’s body wasn’t found until February 20, discovered in the trunk of his car on a southside street corner, naked, hogtied, stabbed and strangled to death.

January 20, 1978 – Outfit burglar Bernard (Buddy) Ryan, second-in-command in Mendell’s burglary crew, is found behind the wheel of his Lincoln Continental sitting on the side of a west-suburban Stone Park street with four bullets lodged in the back of his head and his throat slit

February 2, 1978 – Outfit burglar Stevie Garcia, Ryan’s right-hand man, is found slain in the trunk of his car in a Sheraton Hotel parking lot by O’Hare Airport, stabbed to death with his throat slit

February 4, 1978 – Outfit burglar and fence Vince Moretti and his buddy Don Renno are beaten to death, their throats slashed, in Cicero bar in what became known in Chicago mob circles as the “Strangers in the Night Murders” due to the fact that the song was playing on the bar’s jukebox as Moretti and Renno were being killed. Moretti was an ex-cop and seen wearing Accardo’s monogramed gold, diamond-encrusted cuff links around town in the days after the high-profile heist. While Moretti was a member of Mendell’s crew, Renno wasn’t and just happened to be with Moretti when he was summoned to be clipped

April 6, 1978 – Outfit burglar Robert (Bobby Toggs) Hertogs is found in trunk of his car in a grocery store parking lot on Grand Avenue, shot in the back of the head and his throat slashed. Hertogs was connected to the Mendell crew and had fallen behind on a juice loan.

April 14, 1978 –  Outfit burglar Johnny McDonald, the final Mendell crew member to get bumped off, is found lying dead in a westside alley, shot in the back of the head and his throat cut. McDonald allegedly was forced to set Buddy Ryan to be killed.

October 5, 1978 – The Accardo residence’s caretaker Michael Volpe vanishes on his way to work in the days after testifying too candidly in front of a federal grand jury investigating the string of slayings linked to the break-in.

May 22, 1979 – Outfit lieutenant and hit man Anthony (Little Tony) Borselino is found in a Will County cornfield shot in the back of the head. Borselino was part of the infamous Wild Bunch, a westside troop of assassins dispatched on the Chicago mob’s most pressing murder assignments, and suspected in taking part in a number of the slayings tied to the fallout from the break-in

September 18, 1979 – Outfit lieutenant and hit man Gerald (Jerry the Dinger) Carusiello is shot in the back of the head and left on the concrete an in Addison, Illinois apartment complex parking lot. Carusiello was a driver and bodyguard for Accardo’s acting boss Joseph (Joey Doves) Aiuppa and suspected in at least one of the fallout slayings.

The post The Big Tuna’s Big Revenge: Chicago Mob’s ‘Break-In Murders’ Hit List Timeline appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Kansas City mafia erupted into war in the late 1970s related to an internal dispute over control of the city’s River Quay neighborhood, its then-trendy nightlife and entertainment district. The unrest set off a near-decade of violence and instability in the Civella crime family. On one side of the blood feud was Civella clan capo and street boss William (Willie the Rat) Cammisano. On the other K.C. mob soldier David Bonadonna, his son Freddy, who had spearheaded the real estate development and economic resurgence in the area, and their main muscle, the independent Spero brothers.

July 22, 1976 – David Bonadonna, found in trunk of his Mustang shot in the back of the head, blocks away from Willie the Rat’s garage headquarters where Bonadonna was seen in the hours before being killed

November 17, 1976 – John (Johnny B) Brocato found stuffed in his trunk at airport

February 19, 1977 – John (Johnny Green) Amaro shot in his garage

February 22, 1977 – Harold (Sonny) Bowen shot-gunned to death inside a crowded Pat O’Brien’s bar

March 27, 1977 – Pat O’Brien’s & Judge Roy Bean’s bombed

August 5, 1977 – Gary Parker blown up in car bomb in his driveway

May 2, 1978 – Myron (Alley Cat Andy) Mancuso, dined at Villa Capri and Waids with Little Willie, Corky, and Tiger, last seen with Little Willie, shot in his car

May 4, 1978 – Mike Massey, Mancuso partner and informant that got Tiger busted, shot in the head in his car

May 17, 1978 – Mike Spero in Virginian Tavern Massacre, Joe wounded, Carl paralyzed

June 18, 1980 – Joe Spero bombing in Clay County fiddling in his work shed

January 6, 1984 – Carl Spero blown up at Five-Star Investment Used Cars

February 9, 1984 – Anthony (Tiger) Cardarella, trunk music, strangled to death, found Feb 27 in parking lot of freight company warehouse

September 19, 1984 – Felix (Little Phil) Ferina shot to death in front of his house

The post Key Of Death: The Kansas City Mob’s Raucous River Quay War Murder Timeline appeared first on The Gangster Report.

A third early-1990s New England mob murder is getting renewed interest as a result of former Patriarca crime family acting underboss and Providence, Rhode Island capo Robert (Bobby the Cigar) DeLuca’s renewed cooperation following his arrest this past summer in the Witness Protection Program, per sources in law enforcement. Whether all three gangland homicides will find their way into future indictments is unknown. At least two most likely will.

Besides shedding new light on the 1993 Stevie DiSarro slaying and the 1992 Kevin Hanrahan hit, DeLuca, 71, has provided fresh intelligence on the 1994 Barry Kourmpates murder which took place in the hours leading up to Mother’s Day and could finally birth homicide charges in the 22-year old cold case, sources say. The 24-year old Kourmpates was robbing people he shouldn’t have been and his charred remains were discovered on the side of a hiking trail in the picturesque Beavertail Park in Jamestown, Rhode Island. An indictment related to Hanrahan’s murder is reportedly in the works.

“Bobby DeLuca is giving us more than ever before,” said one source familiar with DeLuca’s second debriefing (he debriefed in 2011 too). “These guys are always going to hold something back. There’s more to squeeze out of him. He knows that era in the New England underworld as well as anyone, people weren’t getting banged out without him either knowing about it or being directly or indirectly involved.”

Former New England mob don Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme was charged and pled not guilty to ordering and being present at DiSarro’s execution in May 1993 earlier this fall. DeLuca acted as Salemme’s second-in-command and representative outside of Boston. Like his former right-hand man, Salemme, 83, was living in the Witness Protection Program when he was arrested.

DeLuca has admitted to taking possession of DiSarro’s body from Salemme and burying it behind a converted mill in Rhode Island. DiSarro and Salemme were partners in a South Boston nightclub and Salemme suspected DiSarro of stealing from the club and working with the federal government in building a case against him.

Kourmpates was a young wannabe wiseguy and thief who angered mafia powers in Providence with he and his crew’s robbing of mob-protected businesses and private residences and refusing to return proceeds from their scores when demanded to by a pair of particularly prickly Patriarca clan lieutenants. One of those lieutenants was recently-deceased ill-tempered Providence capo Anthony (The Saint) St. Laurent. Just 11 days removed from being released from a 10-year prison term for extortion, sports gambling and attempted murder (trying to kill DeLuca), the Saint died of natural causes last week at 75.

St. Laurent had his name surface in the Hanrahan investigation in 2010. Informants told the FBI that Hanrahan, a longtime Patriarca enforcer and reputed hit man, was attempting to shakedown a bookie that belonged to the Saint and the Saint had an intermediary contact Salemme at his home base in Boston to let him know of the situation in the week after Labor Day 1992. St. Laurent, per the informants, collected a $25,000 cash payment in a grocery bag in the 48 hours before Hanrahan was killed on September 18, 1992 leaving a dinner in Providence’s famously mobbed-up Federal Hill neighborhood hosted by a Bobby DeLuca confidant. DeLuca pled guilty to conspiracy charges in the Hanrahan case two weeks ago.

Kourmpates disappeared the night of May 7, 1994. His badly-burned body was found in Beavertail Park, located right outside Providence, late the next afternoon, Mother’s Day, after he didn’t show up at Mother’s Day brunch with his family and was reported missing by his mom. He had been shot in the back of the head and his corpse set ablaze. He was paroled from a year-long prison stint for breaking-and-entering two months prior.

Beavertail Park

According to Rhode Island State Police records, Kourmpates and his two partners in a burglary ring clearing in the high six figures pulling safe-cracking jobs, Mike Raposa and Ray Luca, were summoned to a meeting at the Golden Nugget Pawn Shop in the Olneyville section of Providence in the summer of 1992 and encountered St. Laurent and fellow knuckle-dragging New England mobster Vito (The Ox) DeLuca – no relation to Bobby the Cigar – who proceeded to read the too-gutsy trio of unconnected twentysomething thugs the riot act about robbing connected businesses and neglecting to pay any street tax on their scores. Then-underboss Luigi (Baby Shacks) Manocchio is alleged to have dispatched St. Laurent and DeLuca to handle the issue, per RISP records, after receiving complaints from some of his business associates hit by the robbery spree.

“Ox” DeLuca allegedly pounded a table and physically grabbed Kourmpates by the collar of his shirt for emphasis during the warning session. Kourmpates, Raposa and Luca gave St. Laurent and DeLuca $5,000 in cash on the spot, per a state police document, and promised to deliver more and return portions of the stolen goods and money, but failed to do either. Raposa told authorities he, Kourmpates and Luca would fence their looted merchandise through the Golden Nugget and used it as a de-facto headquarters.

Manocchio, 89, succeeded Salemme as boss of the Patriarca crime family in 1996. He ruled until 2009 and is currently retired living back in Federal Hill following almost five years behind bars via a federal extortion conviction.

At the time of Kourmpates’ slaying, the Ox was away in prison, doing three years for weapons violations. He’s since been deported to Italy. The 73-year old Vito DeLuca and St. Laurent were busted together in 2000 for bookmaking. DeLuca is considered a suspect in the 1982 murder of Providence Goodfella Anthony (Tony the Moron) Mirabella in Olneyville.

The post The Barry Kourmpates ‘Mother’s Day Murder’: Ex-N.E. Wiseguy DeLuca Also Giving Info On 1994 R.I. Gangland Hit appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The unsolved 1994 New England mob murder of burglar Barry Kourmpates can be traced back to the stealing of a list of safe-installations job orders and accompanying combinations two years earlier, according to Rhode Island State Police records and the excellent reporting of the Providence Journal newspaper in the months after Kourmpates, 23, popped up dead at an ocean-side park in suburban Providence on Mother’s Day. Kourmpates’ slaying is getting a new looksee by the FBI in the wake of former Patriarca crime family acting underboss and one-time Providence caporegime Robert (Bobby the Cigar) DeLuca getting arrested back in the summer living in the Witness Protection Program and reconvening his cooperation, per sources in law enforcement.

As a result of DeLuca spilling more secrets, former New England mafia boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme has already been indicted for the 1993 murder of mob associate Steve DiSarro and, according to sources, a future indictment charging the 1992 gangland execution of mob enforcer Kevin Hanrahan will be dropping soon. Bobby the Cigar has pled guilty to playing a role in both killings, copping to a murder conspiracy count two weeks ago in the Hanrahan hit and admitting he was in charge of burying DiSarro’s body.

Per sources, he’s also talking about what he knows regarding the rubout of Kourmpates, who drew the ire of the Patriarca’s Providence wing when he and two of his thief buddies began ripping off mob-backed businesses and mob-tied personal residences in the early 1990s and rebuffed requests for the return of certain stolen property and the forking over of a monthly tribute to the New England mob.

Kourmpates grew up outside Providence in Cranston, Rhode Island, graduating from Cranston East High School in 1988. It didn’t take long for Kourmpates to gravitate to a life of crime. He was busted for breaking-and-entering before his 21^st birthday and got probation instead of jail time.

By the end of 1991, Kourmpates was part of a crew of cat burglars with Mike Raposa and Ray Luca that hung around the Golden Nugget Pawn Shop in Providence’s downtrodden Olneyville neighborhood. Although they were all Portuguese, the three twentysomething gangsters idolized and emulated the area’s Italian mobsters who ran the local underworld, frequently shopping, dining and socializing at Providence mafia hotspots.

In January 1992, Raposa staged a break-in of a van, a smash-and-grab job, in the parking lot of the Golden Nugget, stealing a safe-installer’s work-order list which included addresses and combination codes for dozens of companies and homes in and around Providence out of his vehicle, per state police records. Over the next year, Raposa, Kourmpates and Luca pulled more than 50 robberies, grabbing loads of precious jewelry, furs, weapons and hundreds of thousands of dollars of cold cash. Despite their collective admiration for the mafia, they didn’t cut the boys in the Patriarca clan in for a piece of the action to insure their protection and didn’t have qualms targeting businesses and houses linked to the same mobsters they tried acting like.

Called on the carpet to account for their actions at an August 1992 sit down with ornery Providence mob lieutenants Anthony (The Saint) St. Laurent and Vito (The Ox) DeLuca held at the Golden Nugget, per state police records, they agreed to give back portions of the stolen merchandise and begin paying a street tax on their scores. However, they never returned a thing and after an initial $5,000 was handed over, they didn’t deliver any more tribute envelopes.

The whole operation came to a screeching halt on Dec 3, 1992 when Raposa was pulled over in his Mercedes in a routine traffic stop by police in Warwick, Rhode Island and a search of the car uncovered a set of burglary tools, a ski mask, and a list of victims and potential victims on a computer spread sheet that had been printed out. Raposa began cooperating immediately and gave up Kourmpates and Luca.

Kourmpates pled no contest to the charges in October 1993 and was sentenced to a year behind bars. He was paroled March 23, 1994. Less than two months later, he was dead. Kourmpates’ heavily-charred remains were found on the side of a hiking trail at Beavertail Park in Jamestown, Rhode Island on Mother’s Day, May 8, 1994.

St. Laurent died of natural causes last week at 75 after getting released from a decade stint in prison in late October. The Saint and Bobby DeLuca were arch enemies. Three FBI informants received offers from Bobby the Cigar to murder St. Laurent, also allegedly involved in the Kevin Hanrahan hit conspiracy. The 73-year old Vito DeLuca (no relation to Bobby DeLuca) was incarcerated at the time of the Kourmpates slaying on an illegal gun-possession charge and was deported to Italy in the 2000s following his conviction in a bookmaking case alongside St. Laurent.

The post List Of Safe Combos Led To Riches, Rep & Eventually Death For Rhode Island Thief Who Crossed The Mob appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The reputed boss of what’s left of the once-powerful Buffalo mafia, east coast mob elder-statesman, Leonard (The Calzone) Falzone, died of natural causes this week at 81 years old and after a decade as the alleged leader of the continuously-shrinking Maggadino crime family in western New York. According to the FBI, Falzone assumed command of the Family in 2006 from Joseph (Big Joe) Todaro, Jr., who voluntarily stepped down and retired to focus on his legitimate pizza and chicken-wing empire.

A convicted felon, the suave, well-liked, outgoing, but feared Falzone, per federal court records, had previously served as the organization’s consigliere beginning in 1987 under Todaro’s dad and predecessor as don, Joseph (Lead Pipe Joe) Todaro. Lead Pipe Joe died peacefully in 2012. Falzone was considered a suspect in more than one mob murder conspiracy and handled overseeing all loansharking for the Maggadinos from the 1970s into the 1990s.

For decades, Falzone was a power broker in local labor union affairs, working out of Local 210 in the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), administering the Local’s pension fund. He was convicted of federal racketeering and loansharking in 1994 and did five years in prison, getting released in July 1999. One witness against Falzone at his trial told jurors of having to seek Falzone’s permission in the 1980s in order to set up a gambling and juice-loan business on the west coast in Las Vegas, where the Buffalo mob operated a crew.

The passing of Falzone parallels the fading landscape in the western New York mafia. With Big Joe Todaro in retirement and Falzone’s death, only a few men with serious ties to the area’s mob old guard still exist today. The current status of local gangland figures Russ Carcone, Victor Sansanese, Frank (Butchie Bifocals) BiFulco and Robert (Buffalo Bobby) Panaro is unknown.

Leonard Falzone

The post Buffalo’s ‘Calzone’ Mob King, Leonard Falzone, Slid Into Undertaker’s Oven At 81, Spells End Of Era In W. NY Underworld appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Dean Martin had just as many mafia ties as his more well-known mob-affiliated Rat Pack pal Frank Sinatra. Portions of Martin’s FBI file detail his early underworld connections as a gopher, blackjack dealer, dice man and aspiring boxer under the auspice of the mafia in Steubenville, Ohio in the 1930s. Michigan State Police records from the 1970s highlight Martin’s friendly relationship with leaders of a number of Midwest mob families.

Born Dino Crostini in smoggy Steubenville, an ethnically-diverse factory town located on the Ohio River bordering West Virginia, Martin began running errands for local mob boss Jimmy Tripodi and his second-in-charge Cosmo Quattrone at a young age and worked as a stock boy at Tripodi’s Star Cigar Shop, which doubled as a backdoor casino. After he hung up his gloves and gave up his dreams of glory as a prize fighter but before he found his calling as a brilliant, velvet-voiced singer and performer in the entertainment industry, he was employed as a card dealer and stick man at Quattrone’s backdoor casino ran out of his Rex Cigar Shop and after that in Youngstown, Ohio’s infamous Jungle Inn gambling den owned by future Cleveland Godfather James (Jack White) Licavoli.

Latter in life, Martin would recall stories of stealing from customers at Quattrone’s games held at “The Rex,” and how Licavoli and other Youngstown Mafiosi helped land him early gigs singing in nightclubs around the Mahoning Valley. At that time, Licavoli looked after the “Valley” for mob superiors in Cleveland and Detroit.

Jimmy Tripodi lorded over the Steubenville underworld from the end of Prohibition until he retired in the late 1970s. His arrest record dated back to 1920s where he made his name on the streets as a bootlegger and prolific mob killer. He was acquitted of the Dominic Spinetti slaying in state court in 1936 and arrested but never put on trial for the Jimmy Fratini hit in Ohio and the Diego Delisa murder in West Virginia. His most significant conviction was a federal gun charge he did three years in prison for.

The Steubenville mob was a wing of the Cleveland mafia. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, FBI surveillance teams followed Tripodi and Quattrone to Cleveland to meet with and deliver tribute to longtime Cleveland mafia consigliere Anthony (Tony the Old Man) Milano at Milano’s Italian American Brotherhood Social Club. Per FBI documents from 1967, Tripodi also maintained close links to the Pittsburgh mob via Steel Town crime family capo Antonio Ripepi and the New York mafia through Genovese crime family power Rocco Pellegrino.

While Tripodi headquartered his activities out of The Venetian Italian Restaurant, Quattrone based his affairs out of a bar and supper club known as The Baron. Martin could be seen at both establishments holding court during his trips home in the Rat Pack period, his FBI file notes. The Midway, a restaurant, lounge and backdoor casino owned by Tripodi and Quattrone, often made it into Martin’s rounds on visits back to Steubenville, too.

After a renegade Cleveland mob crew robbed the Baron in 1956, Quattrone got permission to take vengeance, according to FBI records, and put out open murder contracts on the heads of the crew’s two leaders, Dom Mafrici and Vince Innocenzi. Mafrici, who was the son-in-law of Tony Milano’s driver and bodyguard, was killed in hiding in Buffalo in 1957 and Innocenzi was found dead in a ditch in Canton, Ohio shot in the back of the head in summer of 1960.

Martin played golf and hobnobbed with several members of the rustbelt mob elite in his heyday, including Chicago dons Tony (The Big Tuna) Accardo and Sam (Momo) Giancana, Detroit mafia princes Anthony (Tony Z) Zerilli and Giacomo (Black Jack) Tocco, Ohio crime chiefs “Jack White” Licavoli and Angelo (Big Ange) Lonardo and Pittsburgh gangland legends John LaRocca, Mike Genovese and Kelly Mannarino, according to Michigan State Police documents from 1975. Sinatra, an east coaster, had nothing on his buddy “Dean-O” in America’s heartland when it came to connections to notorious hoods.

One informant told the MSP that Martin hosted Zerilli, Tocco, Accardo and Giancana on the Las Vegas set of the original Ocean’s 11 film in late 1959. An MSP internal memo from 1976 lists an account by two FBI agents who followed Martin from Las Vegas to Illinois to visit Giancana in the hospital after a surgery he had in 1963 and then off to Detroit to play a gig and party with Zerilli and Tocco. Multiple MSP informants relayed to their respective handlers in the government stories of Martin’s appearances at horse race tracks owned by Zerilli and Tocco in suburban Detroit and Wheeling, West Virginia. FBI agents tracked Zerilli and Tocco to a Martin performance in the Pittsburgh area in 1966 and observed the pair of Motor City mob czars dine and play a round of golf alongside Martin and local mafia kingpins Genovese and Mannarino the next day before heading back to Michigan.

Jimmy Tripodi died peacefully in 1987 at the age of 88. Cosmo Quattrone did the same in 1986 at 85. Stricken with lung cancer, Martin passed away on Christmas Day 1995 at his Beverly Hills, California estate, having carved out an iconic legacy for himself as a singer, actor, comedian and variety-show host. US Route 7 in Steubenville was officially renamed Dean Martin Boulevard.

The post Dean Martin & The Mafia: Rat Pack No. 2 Man Rubbed Elbows With Wiseguys His Whole Life Just Like Ole’ Blue Eyes appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Over three and a half decades ago, recently-deceased Buffalo mob don Leonardo (Leonard the Calzone) Falzone was a central figure in the planning and carrying out of a murderous 24-hour purge of potential troublemakers for Local 210 of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) which Falzone held a plum administrative post at until his mafia ties forced his resignation in 1995, per FBI records. The back-to-back slayings of Buffalo mobsters Carl Rizzo and William (Billy the Kid) Sciolino in the early spring of 1980 sent shockwaves through the western New York underworld.

Rizzo, an old-school Magaddino crime family capo, was kidnapped and murdered on March 6, 1980. Sciolino, a young syndicate soldier and one-time favorite of area mob brass, was gunned down by a team of assassins as he watched television in a construction-site office trailer in broad daylight the following afternoon, on March 7, 1980. Falzone’s name popped up as a suspect in both homicide investigations, according to FBI records and court filings, tabbed by at least one informant as the man in charge of coordinating the details of the two executions tied to union affairs out of Local 210.

Falzone died of natural causes earlier this week. He was 81. The FBI believes he became boss of the beleaguered Buffalo mafia in 2006. He had held the job of the Magaddinos’ consigliere since 1987, per police documents.

In the 1970s, Falzone rose through the ranks of the labor union and the Buffalo mob simultaneously. Appointed the pension fund administrator for Local 210, he held the purse strings for tens of millions of dollars-worth of loans. On the streets, he became known as a valued and accomplished enforcer for the city’s mafia, according to FBI records. His name surfaced as a suspect in several gangland-related murders and shootings. There were ten mob hits in the Buffalo area between 1974 and 1979 and Falzone was eyed by authorities for a role in five of them, per sources in law enforcement.

So when Local 210 ran into problems with Carl Rizzo and Billy Sciolino at the beginning of 1980, according to FBI records, Falzone was called upon to solve them. After Local 210 member Albert (Big Al) Monaco showed up dead on the side of a barren dirt road in Evans, New York in 1984, Falzone got named by informants for relaying orders for the hit to soldiers Luciano (Dilly) Spataro and his son-in-law Johnny Spinelli.

The 64-year old Rizzo was the Magaddinos’ liaison to a number of the country’s other regional crime families and at the forefront of a dental-insurance scam the mafia in Buffalo was operating through Local 210 along with mob figures in Cleveland, Florida and New Jersey. Falzone administered Local 210’s healthcare insurance benefits. Sciolino, 40, was a Steward at Local 210, a reputed hit man and protégé of already-deceased Buffalo mob capo Daniel (Danny Boots) Sansanese.

By the late 1970s, the FBI began what became a decade-and-a-half quest to rid Local 210 of underworld influence. Rumors were floating around that Sciolino had started telling union secrets to the government, per a police intelligence memo drafted in 1981, and Magaddino organization powers worried that Rizzo “knew too much” and couldn’t withstand a future bust and prison sentence without doing the same.

Rizzo disappeared on the evening of March 6, 1980 on his way home for dinner with his wife. His badly-decomposed corpse was found five weeks later in the trunk of his car, hogtied and shot in the back of the head. The day after Rizzo got killed, Sciolino met his fate at a construction site for a public transportation service center, felled by a hit squad of masked gunmen in his office.

Investigators focused in on Falzone early in the Sciolino murder probe. Falzone’s car was ticketed parked next to where the getaway car was abandoned. The FBI searched his residence and union headquarters as a part of the inquiry which never resulted in any charges being filed. Falzone and a host of fellow Buffalo mob Local 210 stalwarts were indicted in 1983 for bilking the union of $150,000, but they beat the case.

As Falzone fought Uncle Sam in court, Big Al Monaco, one of the Buffalo mafia’s lieutenants tasked with looking after certain portions of the crime family’s loansharking operations, was thought to be skimming collection proceeds, some of which were earmarked for Falzone and the others’ defense fund. Monaco was lured to legendary west New York wiseguy and hitter Dilly Spataro where Johnny Spinelli, married to Spataro’s daughter, pumped three bullets into the back of Monaco’s skull on April 3, 1984.

Spataro, 82, is currently in prison on multiple murder counts. Spinelli lasted until 1986 – he was slain at Spataro’s behest and allegedly with the blessing of his bosses in the mafia for his drug abuse, mistreatment of Spataro’s daughter and the fact that he had first-hand knowledge of possibly a half-dozen mob hits or more.

Falzone was indicted again in May 1994.This time for racketeering and loansharking and this time he was convicted, doing five years behind bars. A federally-authorized bug installed in his Buick in the late 1980s revealed conversations between him and mob capo John (Fat Johnny) Sacco, the Magaddinos’ narcotics chief in the Buffalo area where Falzone tells Sacco he “did the right thing” in murdering his drug-dealing partner Michael Ress, calling Ress “too much of a headache.” Ress vanished on August 9, 1989 and his body has never been dug up.

Sacco died in 1990 of a heart attack in the Niagara County Jail facing a large drug conspiracy case. He and Falzone were famously part of an executioner’s troop in 1976 sent to eliminate rogue mobster Faustino (Frosty) Novino, who killed the son of Buffalo mafia capo Albert (Babe) Billiteri over the belief that the younger Billiteri had robbed Novino’s mom’s house. Novino shot his way out of danger at the Connecticut Club, wounding Sacco and recalling on the witness stand in the court years later crashing into and over Falzone as he fled, even pushing his gun into Falzone’s chest and pulling the trigger, only to have the gun jam.

The post The Local 210 Murders: Buffalo Mafia Baron Leonard Falzone Died A Suspect In Pair Of Labor Union-Linked Hits appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Buffalo mafia was treacherous terrain in the late-20th Century, from the time surrounding the 1974 passing of crime family namesake Stefano (The Undertaker) Magaddino until the start of the New Millennium, the Italian mob in western New York averaged roughly one gangland murder per year, with the 1970s and 80s being particularly brutal on the streets of Buffalo.

May 8, 1974 – Magaddino crime family powerhouse and labor-union captain John Cammillieri is gunned down in front of his favorite restaurant, Roseland’s, as he went to join his crew and girlfriend for his birthday party after attending a wake for Buffalo mobster Frank (Frankie Blaze) Lo Tempio, a soldier from the syndicate’s Utica, New York wing. The 63-year old Cammillieri allegedly feuded with his bosses in the mafia over union affairs and argued loudly with several Magaddino mob administrators at a cigar store hangout in the hours leading up to his high-profile slaying.

September 19, 1974 – Buffalo mob prince, Albert (Little Babe) Billiteri, Jr., the drug-dealing son of Magaddino crime family captain Albert (Babe) Billiteri, is found shot six times in Cheektowaga as unsanctioned payback for ripping off another western New York wiseguy in a narcotics transaction and robbing the wiseguy’s mom’s house.

October 5, 1974 – Buffalo area burglar and bookie Frank (Frankie D) D’Angelo is riddled with bullets as he left Mulligan’s nightclub for failing to deliver tribute to the Magaddino mob family from a big jewelry heist he pulled.

February 17, 1976 – Buffalo area thief and aspiring Goodfella William (Butch) Esposito is found strangled to death, dumped in a mud-soaked field in the back of his apartment complex. Esposito, 29, had recently been paroled from a prison stint for running a robbery ring and allegedly angered the Magaddino hierarchy by getting into a bar fight with a local mafia button man.

May 31, 1976 – Magaddino crime family associate Robert Reingold, a convicted counterfeiter and drug peddler, is found strangled to death and hogtied in the trunk of his car after shooting the brother of a Buffalo mob power.

October 5, 1977 – Buffalo mafia soldier Sam Rizzo is allegedly forced to hang himself at his business’ warehouse in Depew, New York following engaging in a beef with a fellow mobster in Florida.

November 3, 1977 – Buffalo area bartender and bookie Joseph (Handsome Joey) Vara is killed for a love affair he was having with Magaddino mobster Joe San Fratello’s wife while San Fratello was away in prison.

November 14, 1977 – Magaddino crime family associate John Certo is bludgeoned to death and his body discovered in a burned-down shed at a garbage dump in Lewiston, New York. Word on the street was that Certo had slapped around the niece of Niagara Falls capo and future underboss Benjamin (Sonny) Nicoletti.

April 19, 1979 – Buffalo area drug dealer and mob associate Peter (Pixie Stix Pete) Piccolo, a 32 year old hair salon owner and beauty school operator, is found shot in the back of his head behind the desk in his Allentown, New York office. The reportedly-homosexual Piccolo double-crossed his partners in the mob in a large cocaine deal, per police records.

September 29, 1979 – Buffalo mob enforcer Ray Townsend is found shot in the face and head behind the wheel of his car, which was parked idling outside a local watering hole. The 37-year old Townsend was allegedly blamed by local Magaddino organization brass for a bungled drug deal.

March 6, 1980 – Magaddino crime family captain Carlo Rizzo disappears on his way home for dinner and isn’t found for another five weeks when his body is discovered stuffed in the trunk of his car on April 10. Rizzo was deeply involved in the Buffalo mafia’s insurance scams run through mobbed-up labor unions that had come under investigation by the feds.

March 7, 1980 – Buffalo mob soldier and reputed hit man William (Billy the Kid) Sciolino is killed in his office at construction site by a shot-gun wielding team of assassins. Sciolino’s mentor in the mob, Daniel (Danny Boots) Sansanese had died four years prior and rumors were circulating that Billy the Kid was secretly cooperating with the FBI in building a case against Magaddino-infested Local 210 of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) where he held the job as steward.

February 8, 1981 – East coast mafia associate Bobby Warner is shot to death inside a suite in the McKinley Park Inn hotel allegedly by Luciano (Dilly) Spataro for the belief Warner was a rat.

November 13, 1983 – The Buffalo mob’s representative in Toronto, Paul (The Fox) Volpe, is found shot to death in the trunk of his car at the Toronto International Airport. Volpe allegedly fell out with his mob superiors over a casino deal in Atlantic City.

April 3, 1984 – Magaddino crime family loan shark, Albert (Big Al) Monaco is shot in the back of the head at the home of legendary Buffalo mob hit man Luciano (Dilly) Spataro by Spataro’s son-in-law Johnny Pinelli after it’s uncovered that Monaco was skimming from his collections.

February 2, 1985 – Buffalo mobster and drug lieutenant Joe San Fratello is shot death as he departs a local tavern, reportedly the victim of an internal Magaddino spat over narcotics territory.

April 17, 1985 – Buffalo mob enforcer and hired security to the stars Robert (Bobby the Body) DiGiulio is ambushed as he left his home, gunned down for sleeping with a mobster’s girlfriend on contract initiated by his scorned wife and given to Dilly Spataro.

September 19, 1986 – Buffalo mob associate Alan (Tuxedo Al) Levine is found shot to death sprawled out on the street. The 33-year old Tuxedo Al managed a series of prostitute-infested motels and pushed drugs for the Magaddinos. He was killed after he ripped off mobster in drug deal

September 29, 1986 – Magaddino crime family hit man Johnny Pinelli is shot in the back of the head and left in ditch for beating up his wife, Dilly Spataro’s daughter.

August 9, 1989 – Buffalo mob associate and drug dealer Michael Ress vanishes on his way to an evening meeting with Magaddino clan narcotics chief John (Fat Johnny) Sacco, his partner in a cocaine and marijuana distribution network. Ress’ remains have never been unearthed. Both he and Sacco were informing for the FBI.

October 1992 – Buffalo mob associate Paul Gembella is slain over a gambling debt.

July 8, 1993 – Buffalo mob associate Michael Baldi is shot in the head behind wheel of his car after a business deal he was in with Magaddino members went belly up.

May 31, 1997 – Heavily-feared Magaddino crime family captain and the clan’s king of Canada, John (Johnny Pops) Papalia, is shot to death in front of his home in a power play launched by members of his own Hamilton, Ontario crew.

July 23, 1997 – Niagara Falls mobster and Johnny Pops’ top lieutenant and right-hand man Carmen Barillaro is shot dead less than two months after his gangland mentor’s slaying as he answers a knock at his front door.

The post A Quarter Century Of Murder In The Magaddino Crime Family: Buffalo Mob Hit Timeline (1974-1999) appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Stubborn Chicago mafia lieutenant Anthony (Tony the Hatchet) Chiaramonte was slain on Thanksgiving eve 15 years ago, November 22, 2001, shot dead at close range in the vestibule of a local fast-food joint, the first victim of a fierce power struggle at the top of the Windy City mob for control of the Outfit’s Cicero crew. The notorious 67-year old gangland enforcer’s murder has never been solved.

Nicknamed for his weapon of choice on collections, Chiaramonte showed up for a meeting at the Brown’s Chicken & Pasta in suburban Lyon Township, Illinois, just outside Chicago after he ate his holiday meal with his family and met his fate: the Hatchet got pumped full of bullets as he fled a parking lot confrontation with his killer and tried to take refuge inside the restaurant. He never made it in the front door. The assassin fled in a waiting van.

The Chiaramonte hit was the first salvo fired in what turned out to be a five-year period of unrest and acrimony in the Chicago mafia, pitting two factions of the storied Cicero regime against each other in a quest for day-to-day authority in Outfit affairs and bookended by high-profile mob executions. After acting boss John (Johnny Apes) Monteleone died of cancer in January 2001 and the Outfit’s proverbial county seat swung from Johnny Apes’ Southside stomping grounds back to the syndicate’s historic Cicero wing, intense jockeying amongst the Cicero crew elite for the right to call shots ensued.

One side of the feud was headed by the ambitious and power-hungry Michael (Fat Mike) Sarno, the other perceived heir-apparent James (Jimmy the Man) Marcello, at that time still in prison for another two years on a racketeering conviction. Chiaramonte had been convicted in and served time behind bars for the same case Marcello was locked up for. FBI records refer to Chiaramonte as Marcello’s “main muscle” on the streets. In the weeks prior to Chiaramonte’s killing, Marcello’s second-in-command Anthony (Little Tony) Zizzo, was released from prison. He would disappear in August 2006 and is presumed dead.

Marcello, Zizzo and Tony the Hatchet belonged to the branch of the Cicero crew that came up under deceased don Sam (Wings) Carlisi, who was indicted and incarcerated with them in 1992. Carlisi mentored Marcello. Sarno was groomed by Carlisi’s underboss Ernest (Rocky) Infelise.

Chiaramonte began stepping on a lot of toes after he was sprung from the can in 1998, per police documents based on informant intelligence files. On the morning of November 15, 2001, an FBI surveillance unit watched on as Chiaramonte got into a public spat at a Cicero pancake house with Jimmy Marcello’s brother Michael (Big Mickey) Marcello and infamous Westside Outfit strong arm Francis (Frank the German) Schweihs. The argument started at a table inside the restaurant and quickly escalated, spilling over to the parking lot. Tony the Hatchet shoved both Marcello and Schweihs in full view of the two FBI agents stationed in a nearby car prior to speeding off in his brand new $75,000 BMW.

Exactly a week later, Chiaramonte was clipped. Arriving at Brown’s Chicken & Pasta at around 6:00 p.m., he parked his Beamer and went inside to use a pay phone. As he left the restaurant and headed back towards his car, a green minivan pulled up intercepting his progress, causing Chiaramonte to bolt for the Brown’s vestibule with one of the van’s occupants, a burly, gun-toting assailant with a dark-complexion wearing a dark blue Chicago Bears jacket, in hot pursuit. Tony the Hatchet tripped entering the vestibule and the pursuing hit man unloaded five shots into Chiaramonte’s head, chest, face and neck. The heavily-feared mobster was announced dead on arrival at an area hospital.

Outfit associate Bobby Cooper has admitted to being the getaway driver in the Chiaramonte hit. Cooper named Fat Mike Sarno loyalist Anthony (Tough Tony) Calabrese as the shooter. Calabrese is in the midst of a 50-year prison stint for armed robbery and extortion.

Jimmy Marcello emerged from behind bars in 2003 and lasted just two years on the street as the Outfit’s acting boss. He was one of the lead defendants in the landmark Operations Family Secrets case, which was handed down in April 2005. Marcello, 73, was convicted of murder at a 2007 trial.

Sarno, 58, got convicted of extortion at trial in 2010 and is in prison today. He’s considered a top suspect in ordering both the Chiaramonte murder and the Little Tony Zizzo slaying. Zizzo and Sarno locked horns over poker-machine vending routes. Little Tony vanished on his way to a reported sit down with Sarno on ritzy Rush Street downtown.

The post Chicago Mob Still Does Business On Turkey Day: The Outfit’s ‘Tony The Hatchet’s’ Thanksgiving Slaying Set Tone For 5 Yrs. Of Instability appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Convicted felon and reputed Detroit mob associate Gino Accettola is accused of heading a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme in suburban Macomb County. The 49-year old Accettola was named as the lead defendant in a civil law suit filed three weeks ago in Macomb County Circuit Court alleging that he cheated close to a dozen investors of almost four million dollars in fraudulent construction jobs. Sources in law enforcement claim he is being investigated criminally too.

According to the suit, Accettola purported to be a general contractor with big-money construction projects about to launch in Michigan and Florida who was looking for financing but in reality was just trying to fleece people out of their cash – Accettola is accused of accepting loans totaling 4.7 million bucks from 11 individuals or businesses in Metro Detroit over a two-year period (2014-2016), with investors coughing up anywhere between $15,000 and $1,500,000 apiece for stakes that were in essence worth practically nothing. Plaintiffs in the case allege of the near-five million dollars of loans pocketed by Accettola and his 10 co-defendants, only $900,000 was ever recouped.

The law suit alleges Accettola bragged of his mob connections and took some of the stolen dough and bought his girlfriend an engagement ring, among other lavish purchases. When one of the plaintiffs approached Accettola in the winter of 2016 to complain about not getting paid back what he was owed, Accettola allegedly blamed the hold up on his superiors in the Detroit mafia.

Per sources on the street and in law enforcement, Accettola is linked to the Tocco faction of the mob in the Motor City. A multiple-time convicted felon, he did a prison stint in the 1990s.

Accettola’s most recent run-in with the law came three years ago. He pled guilty in Macomb County Circuit Court to a fraud-related offense in 2013 and received probation and a suspended 10-month jail term. The government in Macomb County is currently the focus of an ongoing federal criminal probe which has already resulted in a small trickle of corruption and bribery charges filed against county employees in recent months and is expected to net a drove of additional and more high-profile arrests and indictments in the future, per sources.

The post LAW SUIT: Detroit Man Ripped Off Unsuspecting Investors For Millions, Boasted Of Mafia Ties appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Former Chicago biker boss Peter (Big Pete) James, the one-time Outlaws Motorcycle Club’s Midwest regional vice president currently on a press tour predicting future violence between the Outlaws and their arch-rival the Hells Angels in Illinois, was at the forefront of witness intimidation tactics surrounding a 2010 mob trial, according to FBI records. James left the Outlaws last year due to a bout with cancer and internal club squabbling.

Around a decade ago, the 62-year old James and some of his biker buddies tried to prevent mafia associate Vincent Dublino, the star witness in then-acting Chicago mob boss Michael (Fat Mike) Sarno’s extortion and racketeering trial from testifying by trying to intimidate him with a show of force at Dublino’s bar located in a western suburb, per the records. One of those buddies was Sarno’s co-defendant, Mark (Pork Chop) Polchan, at that time the treasurer of the Outlaws chapter on the Northside of Chicago, the same chapter James served as president of.

The bullish scare attempt, the final of several, failed to work and Dublino took the stand anyway: Sarno and Polchan were both convicted in December 2010, hit with 25 and 60 year prison sentences respectively. Dublino even echoed the name “Big Pete” in his testimony.

Once closely aligned, Dublino and Sarno feuded in the early 2000s over video poker machine distribution routes – Dublino’s C&S Coin Operated Amusements was providing machines to the 47^th Street Grill in Lyons Township, Illinois, part of a route belonging to Sarno, who was the capo of the Outfit’s Cicero crew back then before rising to the crime family’s acting boss post in 2005. Sarno and Dublino had been partners in an ATM business.

“Hey you fucking punk, stay the fuck away from 47^th Street,” Sarno shouted at Dublino outside a local tavern in January 2003.

A month later, the C&S Coin Operated Amusements’ office and warehouse in Berwyn, Illinois were firebombed. Octogenarian Outfit soldier and explosives expert Sam (Master Blaster) Volpendesto was convicted of manufacturing the firebomb that blew Dublino’s storefront to bits. Volpendesto died behind bars in 2013 at 89.

Fat Mike Sarno in 2009

“Pork Chop” Polchan ran a fencing operation for stolen jewelry out of his pawn shop in Cicero where Sarno was known to hang around and send his heist teams, like the one Volpendesto’s son, Anthony (Baby Blaster), headed. The Outfit and the Outlaws have a longstanding relationship. Per Chicago Crime Commission documents, Polchan was the biker club’s liaison to the Italian mafia.

In 2007, the feds convened a grand jury to investigate Sarno’s activities. Dublino was called and appeared in front of the “GJ”, much to the dismay of powers in the Outfit and Outlaws. In the weeks that followed, he received harassing phone calls at his home and multiple visits from Polchan, his then-boss Big Pete James and their cronies at his Berwyn watering hole.

On one occasion, an unnamed Outlaw approached Dublino behind the bar and threatened that his “clocks would run backwards” if he continued his cooperation with authorities and testified at Sarno and Polchan’s upcoming trial. On another, Polchan and Big Pete themselves came into Dublino’s establishment with a half dozen fellow bikers in tow and started to cause a commotion.

When he finally took the witness stand, Dublino recalled a man identifying himself as “Big Pete” leading the ruckus, going into the bar’s restrooms, men’s and women’s, and kicking open stalls with patrons in the process of using the facilities, which caused complaints and patrons flooding to the exits. James admits he “loves” Polchan and categorized him as a “confidant” in a recent interview he did with the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

Fat Mike Sarno will turn 59 next month. He is considered a suspect in ordering the 2001 slaying of Cicero crew solider Anthony (Tony the Hatchet) Chiaramonti and the 2006 kidnapping and murder of Outfit underboss Anthony (Little Tony) Zizzo. Sarno and Zizzo were allegedly fighting over video-poker machine distribution routes as well.

The post Outlaws MC Boss ‘Big Pete’ Proved A Big Headache For Witness At Chicago Mob Trial In 2010 appeared first on The Gangster Report.

According to FBI records released last year, members of the mega east coast rap group the Wu Tang Clan were investigated for ordering a pair of revenge killings in the summer of 1999 after relatives of two Wu Tang Clan members’ families were robbed in the weeks prior. The documents surfaced in court filings related to the trial and sentencing of notorious Staten Island drug kingpins Anthony (Nitty) Christian and his older brother Harvey (Big Black) Christian – both were convicted at a 2014 trial in a wide reaching narcotics and racketeering case. “Nitty” Christian, 43, was also convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison back in the summer.

The Christian brothers and their Bloods-affiliated drug gang ruled the rugged Park Hill projects in Clifton, New York for two decades, taking over the territory in the early 1990s around the same time Staten Island-based Wu Tang Clan was taking off in the music industry. The iconic super group consisted of 10 MCs (RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Raekwon the Chef, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah, U-God, Masta Killa and Cappadonna). Their 1992 debut album, Enter The Wu (36 Chambers) is considered an all-time classic in the hip-hop genre and their influence in the rap industry has been vast.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Russell Jones aka “ODB”), the group’s most controversial figure during its heyday, died of a drug overdose in 2004. It was inside Jones’ FBI file that the allegations of Wu Tang Clan’s links to the two 1999 hits were first publically unearthed. The file on ODB became public in 2012.

The FBI had informants tell them that Robert “RZA” Diggs and Corey “Raekwon the Chef” Woods issued murder contracts on the Christian brothers’ Park Hill gangland rivals, Jerome (Boo Boo) Estella and Corey (Shank Bank) Brooker after Estella allegedly robbed Diggs’ younger brother of a diamond-studded chain at Brooker’s behest and Brooker himself reportedly robbed Woods’ cousin of cash and jewelry. The 17-year old Estella, who had recently returned to the neighborhood following a stint in a juvenile detention center and was part of Brooker’s separate Bloods faction on the street, was gunned down in the Park Hill projects on July 19, 1999. Brooker, 26, was slain three days later on June 22 in nearby Stapleton getting out of his car.

One federal snitch told of RZA placing a $30,000 bounty on Brooker’s head. The Christian brothers’ top hit man Brian (Trigger Trev) Humphreys admitted to killing Estella and Nitty Christian was found guilty of a being the head of the homicide conspiracy and providing Humphreys the murder weapon. “Trigger Trev” Humphreys, arrested the night Estella was killed, and Paul (Unc) Ford, the Christian brothers’ second-in-command and primary supplier, were the star witnesses at the Christians’ trial two years ago. Humphreys copped to five additional murders as part of his plea deal.

The Christian brothers in handcuffs in the late 1990s – Anthony “Nitty” Christian (left) & Harvey “Big Black” Christian (right).

Humphreys and Ford each fingered Diggs in seeking out Nitty Christian’s help in tracking down and murdering Estella and Brooker, already on bad terms with Nitty and his big bro from a turf dispute. Ford heard that RZA had another hit man bump off Brooker and paid the murderer the 30k as offered. Per his own debriefing, Ford discussed the situation with RZA personally on more than one occasion, Nitty sanctioned the contracts on Estella and Brooker and Humphreys lived up to his nickname, eagerly volunteering to handle the wet work – because of his arrest so shortly after the Estella job, he never got the opportunity to go after Brooker resulting in RZA giving the contract to a man identified simply as “Phife.”

Rumors began floating around last year that the FBI was thinking about re-opening homicide probes into Diggs and Woods and re-investigating their possible involvement in the Estella and Brooker rub outs back in the 1990s. More rumors emerged this past summer that the feds had closed any inquiry they had going.

Harvey Christian, 44, is scheduled to be sentenced in the drug and racketeering case next month. He and his little brother beat murder charges in 1997. Attorneys for Nitty Alexander tried using the “Wu Tang angle” as grounds for appealing his first-degree homicide conviction.

Several members of the Wu Tang Clan have gone on to achieve solo-career success and mainstream pop-culture fame. “ODB,” Method Man, GZA, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon the Chef all released acclaimed solo projects and RZA and Method Man have crafted acting portfolios in Hollywood. RZA has appeared in such popular films as American Gangster, Funny People, Ghost Dog and Due Date and wrote and directed the 2012 Russell Crowe-starring vehicle The Man With The Iron Fists. Method Man has had roles in Belly, How High, Garden State, The Wackness and critically-acclaimed HBO television series, Oz and The Wire.

The post The Wu Tang Clan Murders: RZA, Raekwon the Chef Connected To June 1999 Staten Island Slayings, Per Govt. Documents appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Detroit mafia is renowned for its stability, but its track record when it comes to eliminating its enemies is nothing to scoff at. Although famous around the country’s mob landscape for being a crime family that only meted out violence as a last resort measure, bodies have dropped at a prolific rate over the years, but with almost no arrests and only a single conviction, demonstrating the Detroiters acumen for keeping a low profile and masterfully insulating themselves from prosecution.

1937 – Detroit mobster and funeral home owner Frank (The Undertaker) Bagnasco is gunned down in the street after feuding with crime family brass

1938 – Detroit mafia captain and “Downriver mob king” Joe (The Baron) Tocco is killed on the porch of his girlfriend’s house following a beef with his successor as the man in the charge of the city’s Downriver rackets, Anthony (Tony Cars) D’Anna alleged to be related to Ford Motor Co. stock options.

1944 – Detroit mob associate and rogue Lebanese wiseguy Eddie Sarkesian is slain for robbing mafia-ran gambling parlors

1945 – Detroiter Lydia Thompson is found murdered with a note in her pocket directing police to notorious Motor City mafia captain Santo (Cockeyed Sam) Perrone

1945 – Midwest mob associate Maurice Margolis is found dead in Chicago while under federal indictment alongside Detroit mafia captain Peter (Horseface Pete) Licavoli and a gambling lieutenant of his named George (Mosie) Massu.

1946 – Flint, Michigan wiseguy Sam Ricca is killed

1947 – Detroit mob associate and bookie Fred Baraky is killed

1947 – Detroit mob associate and Greek gambling boss Gus Andromulous is garroted to death by local mafia princes and future dons Giacomo (Black Jack) Tocco and Anthony (Tony Z) Zerilli as a way of making their bones

1948 – Detroit mobsters and bookies Pete Lucido and Chris Scroy disappear after accusations of skimming

1949 – Detroit mobster and bookie Eddie Martino is killed

1950 – Detroit mob associate Jack George is shot and strangled to death by future Motor City mafia capo Dominic (Fats) Corrado as a way of making his bones after George fell in disfavor with crime family leaders for robbing people he shouldn’t have been

1955 – Detroit mob associate, numbers runner and burglar A.C. Jones is killed

1956 – Detroit mob soldier and narcotics lieutenant Salvatore (Toto) Vitale has a falling out with local crime family drug czars Giovanni (Papa John) Priziola and Raffaele (Jimmy Q) Quasarano and vanishes after meeting with Jack Tocco and his brother and future consigliere Anthony (Tony T) Tocco at a bar in Windsor, Canada.

1957 – Detroit mob enforcer Leo Difatta is killed for robbing policy houses belonging to the Corrado crew

1957 – Gary, Indiana mobster Gilde Caprio is discovered strangled to death on a barren road on the west side of Michigan with rumors floating that the Detroit mafia disposed of Caprio on behalf of their contemporaries in the Chicago Outfit

1957 – Indebted Detroit-area gambler Earl Atwood is found shot in the back of the head

1957 – West Virginia mobster Nick Miller is killed by members of the Pittsburgh mafia as a favor for the Detroit crime family

1958 – Sicilian immigrant Antonio DiPasquali is blown up in a car bomb for supposedly rebuffing extortion attempts from Detroit mobsters

1959 – Detroit mobster Joe C. Moceri is killed

1959 – Detroit mob associate Chris Scroy, brother of slain wiseguy Sam Scroy, is kidnapped, killed and later has his chopped up body is found in suburban Southeast Michigan. Scroy had shot local Jewish racketeer Max (Big Maxie) Stern years earlier for the belief that Stern headed the hit team that offed his brother and first cousin

1960 – West Coast real estate investor Myford Irvine who did a Las Vegas casino deal with underworld figures, including Detroit mob capo Pete Licavoli is shot to death, allegedly on orders of Licavoli and his fellow bigwigs in the Michigan mafia

1960 – Detroit mob associate and Greektown gambler Tommy Karmanos is killed for being an informant

1961 – Metro Detroit mob-owned painting-company employee Norman Hall is shot to death after heading to a meeting with his bosses, local mafia heavies Frank (Frankie Ice) DiMaggio and Phillip (Polo Phil) Palazzolo

1962 – Detroit mobster and drug lieutenant Ubale (Coy Roy) Calabrese is murdered for the belief he was an informant

1963 – Detroit area con man Sal Brodsky is found dead after conning some local button men

1964 – Detroit mob soldier and narcotics lieutenant Paul (The Sicilian) Cimino disappears following a beef with his bosses, Papa John Priziola and Jimmy Quasarano

1964 – Detroit area numbers operator Harry Ellis is killed

1965 – Deported Detroit mafia capo Onofrio (Nono) Minaudo is killed in Sicily in a revenge slaying tied to a man Minaudo had murdered as a young man prior to fleeing to America

1965 – Detroit mob soldier Peter (Tino) Lombardo, the top enforcer for capo Cockeyed Sam Perrone is murdered after being caught trying to put a bomb under the car of Tony Giacalone, who was in the midst of a mini-war against Perrone and Pete Licavoli in which previously Giacalone had Perrone’s leg blown off in a car bombing

1968 – Indebted gambler and produce vendor Sam DiMaggio, the cousin of “Frankie Ice” DiMaggio, is beaten to death by a trio of Detroit mobsters after being told by Tony Giacalone to send a message but not kill their victim

1968 – Detroit mob associate and gambling chief Cesar Adler is found hogtied, strangled and shot to death in the trunk of his car in the wake of his backdoor casino known as the Carleton House being raided, several high-ranking mafia members getting pinched and police finding loaded dice being used at a number of the craps tables

1968 – Detroit mob associate and Cesar Adler underling Nick Behnen vanishes

1968 – Detroit mafia enforcer Bobby Dunaway, one of Sam DiMaggio’s three killers, is murdered for botching the assignment

1968 – Judy Ruggirello, the wife of future Detroit mob captain Antonino (Tony the Exterminator) Ruggirello, Jr. disappears hours after informing her husband she was leaving him

1968 – Detroit mob capo Joseph (Joe Misery) Moceri is beaten to death in the armed robbery of a warehouse he owned

1968: The Robison family murders (aka The Good Hart Massacre) – Metro Detroit magazine owner Richard Robison, his wife and four children are executed while vacationing in the northern Michigan town of Good Hart at their cabin on the Blisswood Resort property amidst rumors of gambling debts to mob bookies and employee embezzlement

1970 – Mob associates and stocks and securities-fraud experts George Wahl & Jack Eaton are killed within the same few months, Wahl in Detroit and Eaton in Miami

1971 – Detroit mafia associate and drug dealer Willie Flowers is killed for an increasing gambling debt and breaking off his business relationship with the mob to seek out independent narcotics suppliers

1971 – Detroit mafia associate and drug dealer Pete Klavinger is slain after accruing serious debt to local mob loansharks

1971 – Detroit mafia associate and trucking executive Joe Bozied is blown up in a car bomb

1971 – Detroit mafia associate and high-ranking gambling lieutenant Sol (Good Looking Solly) Shindel is killed inside his home, shot in the face at point blank range, while under a pair of indictments and rumors swirling of skimming and too much unpaid personal debt. Local mob enforcers Robert (Bobby the Animal) La Puma and Ronald (Hollywood Ronnie) Morelli, Shindel’s collectors and co-defendants, were the two top suspects in the case

1972 – Metro Detroit builder and general contractor Kelly Chisolm is killed after getting in debt to mob loan sharks

1972 – Bookkeeper Agnes Brush, employed by a company that gave loans to a mob-connected development firm is found stabbed to death in her office after complaining about the shady financial transaction used to finance the famed Pine Knob Music Theatre, now called GTE Music Theatre, suburban Detroit.

1972 – Detroit mobster Pete Vasallo, one of the men responsible for beating Sam DiMaggio to death, is killed

1972 – Detroit mobster Gregory (Little Pete) Katranis, the son of the city’s de-facto Greek crime boss Peter (Pete the Greek) Katranis, is found shot in the back of the head floating in a swimming pool with his hands chopped off after getting caught freenlancing on the street and sucker punching Ronnie Morelli in a bar fight weeks before

1972 – Detroit mob associate and numbers runner George Milkovich is murdered. Milkovich was linked to Joe Calabro and Nick Arvan, who were clipped two years prior

1974 – Attorney Gerald Franklin, who represented infamous Detroit mob bagman-turned-government witness Peter (Birmingham Pete) Lazaros, is killed

1974 – Ambitious furniture store owner and mob associate Harvey Leach is found in the trunk of his car in the parking lot of a suburban Detroit office building the day of his wedding while his business was in the process of being “busted out” and taken over by the Giacalone brothers. Leach was last seen on his way to a meeting with Tony Giacalone at the home of Giacalone “chief of staff” Lenny Schultz

1974 – Detroit mob associate Ronnie Cohen suspiciously commits suicide while under subpoena to testify in a grand jury convened to investigate the Harvey Leach hit

1974 – Saginaw, Michigan numbers runner David DeLarosa is killed in a takeover of his policy business allegedly by Norman (Pete the Arm) Crawford, the top enforcer for Saginaw crew boss William (Billy Lee) Loiacano, the Giacalone brothers’ nephew

1975 – Iconic Teamster Union president and notorious mafia associate Jimmy Hoffa disappears en route to a lunch meeting in Metro Detroit with Tony Giacalone, Lenny Schultz and his former close friend turned arch rival Anthony (Tony Pro) Provenzano of New York’s Genovese crime family. Hoffa was fighting with the mob in his bid to reclaim the union presidency following his five-year prison term for bribery, fraud and jury tampering

1976 – Janice Stevens, the girlfriend of Detroit mobster Joseph (Big Joe) Berardo, is killed

1976 – Detroit mobster Tommy LaBarrie, a frequently used strong arm for the Giacalone crew, is slain allegedly over the belief that he was stealing from his collection efforts

1976 – Longtime Detroit mafia soldiers Nicolo (Nick the Executioner) Ditta, Frank (Frankie Rah Rah) Randazo & Joseph (Joe Goose) Siragusa, all in their 70s, are killed in a mob hit gone wrong when their intended victim, Ernie Kanakis, shoots all three to death in Randazzo’s basement

1977 – Teamsters union treasurer and one-time Jimmy Hoffa confidant Otto Wendel is shot to death in his car in Livingston County, Michigan on the verge of testifying against Detroit mob captain Vincent (Little Vince) Meli in an extortion trial.

1978 – Detroit mob enforcer John Palmer, the last of the marked-for-death Sam DiMaggio hit team, vanishes after his release from a federal prison sentence

1980 – Detroit mob associate John (Johnny Coach) Cociu, who co-owned the Black Orchid bar with Giacalone crew protégé and African-American drug kingpin Francis (Big Frank Nitti) Usher, is found beheaded in the trunk of his car

1981 – Detroit mafia soldier Carlo Licata, son of deceased L.A. mob boss Nick Licata and brother-in-law to Jack Tocco, dies suspiciously in his Bloomfield Hills, Michigan home on the six-year anniversary of the Jimmy Hoffa kidnapping and murder

1983 – Detroit mob associate and nightclub owner Eddie Schave is killed and found stuffed in the trunk of his car

1983 – Detroit mob associate and local businessman David Auer is slain and discovered shot in the back of the head and badly beaten in the trunk of his car in the parking lot of an area motel hours after leaving a nearby lunch meeting with reputed Giacalone crew member Bernard (Bernie the Jew) Schrott. Auer, Schrott’s business partner, was a Nazi-enthusiast who had fallen into debt to Billy Giacalone and after he died Schrott and Giacalone split a million-dollar life-insurance payout

1984 – Veteran labor-union power and Detroit mob associate Ralph Proctor, a former close ally to Jimmy Hoffa, is shot to death inside his car which was parked in front of a Livonia, Michigan Chinese restaurant, less than an hour after heading to a meeting at the restaurant with fast-rising Detroit mafia figure Anthony (Chicago Tony) La Piana. Proctor was threatening to reveal mob secrets tied to the Teamsters if he wasn’t repaid a loan he gave an area union hall.

1985 – Detroit mob associates and bookmakers Gene Mancen & Freddy Sanderson, along with innocent bystander Laverio Teramine, who was meeting with Macen and Sanderson to collect winnings, were killed execution style in a suburban office building in what authorities dubbed the first step in a massive mafia-led consolidation of local gambling operations in the face of future casino legalization in the state

1985 – Colleen Smith, the young girlfriend of feared Detroit mob hit man and enforcer Bernard (Bernie the Hammer) Marchesani, is found dead behind a Highland Park, Michigan motel, months before Marchesani is apprehended after five years on the run from the law dodging an extortion indictment

1985 – Detroit mob associate and numbers lottery chief, Harold (Harry Mack) Maciarz, is killed

1985 – Detroit mafia soldier Peter (Fast Pete) Cavataio is shot and tortured to death, found in a Southwest Detroit garage in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge. The unpopular and out-of-control Cavataio, the brother in law of mob captain Fats Corrado, lasted less than two weeks after Corrado died of cancer before he was whacked and is the last made member of the crime family to be slain

1985 – Detroit mob associate and bookie Jimmy Stabile, his wife Camille Stabile & friend I.T. Hill are killed, possibly over a debt Stabile owed or his connection to Cavataio, who he paid protection to

1986 – Joe Sarno, a Toledo, Ohio mob figure working in Las Vegas for Detroit-linked interests in the local gaming industry, is found shot in the back of the head and floating in Nevada’s Lake Meade

1989 – Detroit mob associate Frank Stramaglia dies of an intentional drug overdose in a hotel hot tub while under indictment in Florida with his big brother and alleged Mafioso Louis (Butch) Stramaglia and rumors spreading of his contemplating cooperating with the prosecutors in the case

1989 – Detroit mob associate and drug dealer Mark Giancotti, Frank Stramaglia’s best friend, is shot to death in his car in a suburban shopping mall parking lot with some believing he was responsible for Stramaglia’s “hot dosing.”

1991 – Wiseguys Dennis Graziani &Tommy Gambini are killed in a Macomb County travel agency that doubled as a bookmaking and policy office by Detroit mob solider Antonio (Dago Tony) Ciraulo, who was beefing with mafia figures in New York and believed Graziani and Gambini had been sent to murder him. Ciraulo is the only member of the post-Prohibition Detroit mafia to be convicted of homicide charges.

1992 – Detroit mob associate, con man and drug dealer Feodies (Yellow Man) Shipp is murdered in a FBI-guarded hotel suite days after deciding to cooperate in a narcotics investigation he and his associates were targeted in. On the night of his murder at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Tony Giacalone was hosting a party for him and his wife celebrating their 50-year wedding anniversary.

1993 – Detroit mob associate and bookie Tony Marino is stabbed to death and found stuffed in the trunk of his car in affluent Birmingham, Michigan

1998 – Englishman gangster-turned-informant Peter McNeil is slain in witness protection in Great Britain after testifying against a Giacalone crew-backed drug smuggling operation out of Europe where the Detroit mob was bringing cocaine into the United States via freight ships carrying farm equipment

2001 – John (John-John) Jarjosa, Jr., the son of convicted Detroit mob associate and strip-club overseer, John (J.J.) Jarjosa, Sr., is gunned down at a traffic light in a professional hit while driving his friend’s Corvette and his father away in prison

2002 – Detroit mob associate Jerome (Jerry the Blade) Bianchette, a young protégé of and collector for deposed mob underboss Tony Zerilli, is shotgunned to death at a suburban construction site just two weeks following Zerilli’s RICO conviction and incarceration

2007 – Drug-addled Detroit mob soldier Carlo Bommarito, the son of mafia capo Frank (Frankie the Bomb) Bommarito, is allegedly “hot-dosed” on orders of Billy Giacalone, allegedly for the belief that he had been snitching

The post Mafia, Murder & Mayhem In The Motor City: Detroit Mob Hit Timeline (1937-2007) appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Imprisoned Philadelphia mobster Anthony Nicodemo had a personal beef with Gino DiPietro, the convicted drug dealer and possible one-time police informant he pled guilty to helping murder in an ill-conceived gangland slaying from four years ago that dated back to a debt, an insult and a dustup at a card game, according to exclusive GR sources. DiPietro was gunned down getting into his truck in South Philly on the afternoon of December 12, 2012.

Nicodemo, 45 and infamous east coast mafia don Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino’s former driver and bodyguard, copped to third-degree murder conspiracy charges and a weapon violation in DiPietro’s killing in the winter of 2015 and is currently serving a 25-to-50 year-sentence in state prison. He won’t be eligible for parole until 2038. Authorities believe Nicodemo drove the getaway car in the most recent mob hit from the notoriously brutal Bruno-Scarfo crime family, which up until now has never had a clear motive attached to it.

The 50-year old DiPietro had served prison time for gun and drug charges and allegedly gave up info on his first cousin and co-defendant Victor in his narcotics case, but there’s never been any confirmed link between him and Nicodemo or Nicodemo’s suspected accomplice, reputed Philly mob soldier Dominic (Baby Dom) Grande. Prosecutors in the homicide case targeting Nicodemo earlier in the decade admitted it’s their theory that Grande, a known Nicodemo cohort and gangland running buddy, was the hit’s triggerman. Grande, 37 and the son of mafia hit man turned informant Salvatore Grande, has never been arrested nor charged in the still-open homicide case.

Per three sources familiar with the situation, DiPietro and Nicodemo had bad blood dating back three months before DiPietro got killed when DiPietro racked up losses at a late-night card game Nicodemo oversaw in early September 2012. DiPietro left the game without paying off all of what he owed and returned to the game a few days later, according to these sources, wanting to play again but was informed by Nicodemo he couldn’t until he squared his debt, which led to DiPietro cursing Nicodemo loudly and the two engaging in a short, but heated shouting match.

“Gino told Tony Nics (Anthony Nicodemo) to go fuck himself and he did it in front of a bunch of people,” a source recounted to Gangster Report of the beef. “Nics just stood there and smiled for a while and then he kicked him out….they were both yelling. Gino called him a wannabe and Anthony said yeah, you’re gonna wanna be in another country in about two seconds if you don’t kick bricks. Anthony ain’t someone to trifle with. Everyone knows that. Gino just didn’t care.”

At that time already a suspect in multiple mob executions, Nicodemo, per the sources, sought and received permission from crime family administrators to kill DiPietro as retribution for his disrespect. Two sources claim Nicodemo discussed the issue with Philly Godfather Skinny Joey Merlino, who relocated to Florida following his release from a dozen-year stay federal prison in 2011 and was in town for his father’s funeral in October 2012, and Merlino sanctioned the job, telling Nicodemo to “handle it anyway you want.”

One source claims Nicodemo and Grande met with Merlino’s best friend and then-acting boss Steve (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone in a South Philly row house belonging to the relative of a known mob associate in the 24-to-48 hours prior to murdering DiPietro. Grande is a nephew of Mazzone’s via marriage.

The hit itself was a disaster for Nicodemo. His own Honda Pilot SUV was seen speeding away from the scene and he was apprehended in less than a half-hour at his nearby home, where police found the murder weapon poorly hidden (wrapped in a sweatshirt) in the front of his vehicle parked in his driveway.

Merlino, 54, was indicted back in the summer on another round of racketeering charges stemming from activity in Florida and New York. Mazzone is allegedly official underboss these days in the Bruno-Scarfo Borgata.

The post GANGSTER REPORT EXCLUSIVE: Why Gino DiPietro Was Killed, Sources In S. Philly Provide Reason For 2012 Mob Rubout appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The city of Youngstown’s mob landscape erupted into fiery disarray in the 1960s when the mafia clans in Cleveland and Pittsburgh went to war over the fertile gambling territory in the traditionally working-class Mahoning Valley, famously using car bombs as one of their weapons of choice. The violence lasted until 1968, but after a decade-long reprieve from the bloodshed in the area, the feud escalated again and resulted in a number of slayings in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

March 11, 1960 – Pittsburgh mob soldier and Youngstown crew boss Sandy Naples and his girlfriend Mary Ann Vranich are shotgunned to death on the porch of Vranich’s house. Naples was on a weekend furlough from prison.

August 6, 1960 – Cleveland mob associate Vince Innocenzi is found shot to death in a ditch in Trumbull County weeks following botching a hit on Pittsburgh mafia affiliate Joseph (Stoney) Romano. Days after Innocenzi’s murder, his brother Silvio is found hanged in his garage. Innocenzi was already on thin ice in Ohio underworld circles for his robbing of a mafia-owned Steubenville restaurant and bar years earlier.

December 15, 1960 – Local mob enforcer and Naples faction collector  “Big John” Schuller is killed, found shot on Route 82. He had survived a car bombing two years prior.

June 10, 1961 – Cleveland mob associate and Mahoning Valley gambling lieutenant Mike Farrah is shotgunned to death on his front lawn while practicing his golf swing. Farrah oversaw affairs at the Jungle Inn, the cash cow of a mafia-backed casino and supper club in Warren, Ohio

July 1, 1962 – Pittsburgh mob soldier Billy Naples, his older brother Sandy’s successor as the Steel Town crime family’s point man in the Valley, is blown up in a car bomb in his garage

July 17, 1961 – Cleveland mob soldier James (Vinnie D) De Niro is blown up in a car bomb outside his restaurant on a crowded Youngstown street

November 23, 1962 – Cleveland mob soldier and notorious Youngstown crew boss Charles (Cadillac Charlie) Cavallaro and his 11-year old progeny Tommy Cavallaro are blown up in a car bomb in their garage the morning after Thanksgiving as the elder Cavallaro went to drive his young son to football practice

October 11, 1968 – Local hoodlum and Cleveland mob affiliate Paul Calautti is killed, shotgunned to death on orders of then-Naples faction leader Joseph (Little Joey) Naples, the future co-crew boss in the area on behalf of the Pittsburgh mafia during the late 1980s

The post The Youngstown Tune Up: Cleveland-Pittsburgh Mob War I Murder Timeline appeared first on The Gangster Report.

New York mobster Anthony (Tony Boy) Zinzi did almost a decade in state prison on a conviction for his role in a double murder in the late 1960s. The 73-year old Zinzi, currently alleged to be a top lieutenant of Genovese crime family power Patsy Parrello, participated in the Bronx’s Glass Boat Bar slayings on December 22, 1968 – the hit on fellow wiseguy and suspected police informant Liberto (Libby) Moresco and his friend and drinking buddy Joe Gurney.

One federal record cites informants calling the Glass Boat Bar hits as how Zinzi “made his bones,” a job-well-done he was rewarded for with induction into the Genovese Family following his prison stint. Spending nine years in Green Haven State Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York after pleading guilty to manslaughter and assault charges, Zinzi was released in 1977. He was referenced in an article in Sports Illustrated Magazine that same year as being part of convicted armed-robber-turned-pro boxer Bobby (The Hebrew Hammer) Halpern’s entourage. By the 1980s, per court filings, he was working directly underneath Parrello, who in the years that followed would have his son and namesake killed for throwing a punch at a made man in the Gambino crime family in front of a crowded Bronx social club and saw his crew infiltrated by the an undercover state police trooper.

Zinzi and Parrello, 72, were indicted together back in the summer in a federal racketeering case. Parrello allegedly oversees the Genovese syndicate’s affairs in the Bronx. Zinzi is charged with running an after-hours gambling club in Yonkers and acting as an enforcer on behalf of Parrello, handling such duties as assaulting a man harassing patrons in the parking lot of Parrello’s Arthur Avenue restaurant headquarters, Pasquale’s Rigoletto, and ordering the car of a rival backdoor casino operator torched, according to the August 2016 indictment.

In December 1968, a then-24 year old Zinzi and two associates, John (Johnny Boy) Petrucelli and Ernie (Coco) Coralluzzo, were tasked with getting rid of Moresco, per police reports and court documents, and got help from John Ferolito, the owner of the Glass Boat Bar, a watering hole in the Bronx Moresco was known to frequent. When Moresco arrived and began drinking with Gurney on the night of December 22, Ferolito called the Genovese hit crew to alert them and sent his one cocktail waitress down the street on a coffee run. Arriving at the Glass Boat Bar in Zinzi’s blue-colored Oldsmobile, Zinzi, Petrucelli and Coralluzzo went inside and shot both Moresco and Gurney.

It was a grim scene. Gurney died on the spot. Moresco, wounded and wielding a pistol, stalked his assailants into the parking lot and Zinzi ran him over with his car. Moresco died at the hospital less than an hour later. Ferolito and Zinzi both copped pleas. Coralluzzo was acquitted at trial and went on to a lucrative career as a mob narcotics trafficker – doing much of his business in the 1970s with local African-American crime lords like Leroy (Nicky) Barnes, Frank (Black Caesar) Matthews and Frank Lucas and his “Country Boys Gang” – while Petrucelli was convicted of Gurney’s murder, but not Moresco’s. Petrucelli allegedly bragged of shooting Gurney to friends and was slain gangland style himself in the fall of 1989, just two years removed from being sprung from prison on the Gurney homicide.

The post The Glass Boat Bar Murders: Genovese Button Man ‘Made Bones’ With 1968 Double Homicide At Bronx Tavern appeared first on The Gangster Report.

One-time Pagan’s Motorcycle Club National President Dennis (Rooster) Katona will most likely be a free man again soon – his state drug conviction was tossed on appeal last week. The Pagan’s are one of the preeminent outlaw biker gangs on the east coast, maintaining a particular stronghold in the areas in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, spanning across rural western Pennsylvania into Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia.

The hulking, long-haired and heavily-tattooed Katona, 50, was found guilty of intent to distribute a controlled substance at a bench trial in Pennsylvania state court in 2014 and is serving a 3-to-7 year prison sentence. He could be out on bond pending a prosecutor’s appeal within days. Practically the entirety of the state’s original case against him has been barred as proverbial fruit of the poisonous tree

Rooster Katona’s conviction resulted from a summer 2011 raid on his Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania home where a state-police SWAT team found three ounces of cocaine and three ounces of methamphetamine, totaling a street value of close to $25,000. The appellate court ruled this month that the search was executed on a faulty warrant based on intelligence gleaned from a wired-up snitch and fellow Pagan’s club member named Jasup Hoffman who had been recording conversation with Katona for weeks.The problem was the police weren’t properly updating court authorization for the intercepts that led to the probable cause for the issuing of the warrant.

The founder and owner of East Coast Cycles, a custom bike shop with outlets in Pennsylvania, Florida, Germany and Austria, Katona did four years in federal prison in the 2000s for leading an attack on a rival biker gang’s banquet in Plainview, New York in 2002. The ensuing melee pitting Katona and his Pennsylvania Pagan’s cohorts against a contingent of Long Island Hells Angels left one dead – Pagan Robert (Mailman) Rutherford – dozens injured, ten hospitalized and over 70 arrested and convicted. At the time of the 2002 brawl, Katona was the sergeant-at-arms for the Pagan’s Pittsburgh chapter and the club’s national treasurer.

The post Cock-A-Doodle Doo From The Can: Pagan’s MC Powerhouse ‘Rooster’ Katona Has Narcotics Conviction Thrown Out appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Territory in New York was at the heart of a dispute between rowdy biker gangs, the Pagan’s and the Hells Angels, in the early 2000s, boiling over into all out chaos in the winter of 2002 when Pagan’s then-national treasurer and the club’s Pittsburgh chapter’s sergeant-at-arms Dennis (Rooster) Katona organized and personally spearheaded a violent blindsiding of their rivals at an annual social gathering of east coast Hells Angels known as the Hellraiser Ball. The coordinated attack took place on the afternoon of February 23, 2002 and saw vans of Pagan’s pull up to the Vanderbilt, a fancy Long Island banquet hall, and unleash havoc on their enemies inside in the form of a series of stabbings, shootings and beatings that lasted for more than a half hour and resulted in the death of one of the some 70 Pagan’s assailants and the hospitalization of a dozen Hells Angels victims.

The burly 50-year old Rooster Katona had a narcotic conviction thrown out by the Pennsylvania Court of Appeals earlier this month when the higher court ruled a state police warrant void. He’s serving a 3-and-a-half-to-7 year sentence behind bars and should be released soon on bond while prosecutors prepare an appeal. At the time of his bust in 2011, he had risen to the position of the Pagan’s national president. Katona did four years in federal prison on charges of assault, inciting a riot and weapons violations tied to his role in the incident at the Hellraiser Ball in 2002.

Tensions between the two clubs were permeating for a number of years dating back to a late 1990s indictment and racketeering case that wiped out virtually the Pagan’s entire presence in New York and led to the Hells Angels coming into town to set up shop and fill the vacuum. The Hells Angels are primarily a west coast club and its desire to establish inroads in the Midwest and on the east coast has traditionally made waves and been met with resistance from rustbelt-centered clubs such as the Pagan’s and the Outlaws.

According to court files, Katona rounded up Pagan’s from all around the country for the siege at the Vanderbilt, recruiting club heavies from Ohio, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Delaware and his home state of Pennsylvania (a notorious Pagan’s hotbed), to stage the epic assault. Ten vans carrying Katona and his looking-for-trouble Pagan’s brethren arrived at the pricey, police-protected Plainview, New York banquet facility at around 4:00 p.m., angrily charged into the formal affair wielding bats, knives, guns, ax handles and machetes and began destroying anything and everything in sight. Within seconds, the Hells Angels in attendance responded – some with their brass-knuckle adorned fists, others with firearms.

Five people were wounded and a half-dozen others badly stabbed in the melee. Robert (Mailman) Rutherford, a Pagan from the club’s Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania chapter, was killed, almost-shockingly the fight’s lone casualty. Katona lived in Westmoreland County when he was arrested in his most recent case. Of the 75 people in handcuffs following the 2002 Hellraiser Ball brawl, 73 of them were Pagan’s.

The post The Hellraiser Ball Brawl: ‘Rooster’ Katona Orchestrated Pagan’s Crashing Of Hells Angels Party In 2000s appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Pagan’s Motorcycle Club in New York didn’t stop trying to bring harm to their enemies, the Hells Angels, following the 2002 Hellraiser Ball attack where close to 100 Pagan’s rushed into a Hells Angels social function being held at a Long Island banquet hall and began shooting and stabbing wildly while swinging everything from fists, baseball bats and ax handles at their bitter rivals in the east coast biker underworld. In 2010, the FBI uncovered a plot by Pagan’s New York chapter president Jason (Roadblock) Blair, to murder several local Hells Angels leaders and indicted him and 16 other club members on racketeering, drug and attempted murder charges prior to his being able to carry out his intended assassinations.

Delivering an impassioned speech in front of hundreds of Pagan’s at a biker rally in the fall of 2010, Roadblock Blair implored his followers to “be prepared to die or go to prison for life” in the club’s ongoing feud with the Hells Angels. Blair’s bust in the days after the now-infamous address resulted from the Pagan’s Long Island chapter being infiltrated by FBI agents working undercover.

Former Pagan’s national president Dennis (Rooster) Katona, the architect of the bloody siege at the Hellraiser Ball almost 15 years ago, had a 2014 narcotics conviction tossed off the books this month by the state appeals court in Pennsylvania. Katona, 50, was based out of Pittsburgh and then western Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County. The club’s powerbase resides in the state of Pennsylvania, but the Pagan’s have long maintained outposts in New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Delaware, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, North & South Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts and Maryland.

Blair’s Long Island-based Pagan’s chapter looks after club activity in New York, New Jersey and the eastern tip of Pennsylvania. Although primarily a west coast club, the Hells Angels started carving inroads on the east coast in the 1980s. The Hells Angels and the Pagans jockeyed for positioning in the Empire State until 1998 when the bulk of the Pagan’s New York flagship out of Long Island went down on racketeering and attempted homicide charges.

Then-Long Island chapter president Michael (Richie Bigfoot) Desena was arrested and jailed alongside more than 30 club members in April of that year. Chapter luminary and national sergeant at arms Keith (Conan the Barbarian) Richter got picked up by authorities the month prior in a foiled murder plot aimed at two Hells Angels. By the end of the decade, the Hells Angels dominated the region and the Pagan’s were looking to rebuild and reestablish their presence in Long Island and the surrounding counties.

The 42-year old Blair began plotting his hit spree focused on eliminating the hierarchy of the local Hells Angels chapter in the late 2000s in the wake of him being physically attacked and beaten by a group of Long Island Hells Angels in the parking lot of a Lindenhurst, New York tavern in August 2009. The coming months saw good ole’ Roadblock elected the new president of the Long Island Pagan’s chapter and his thirst for revenge grow only bigger.

According to court records, Blair and the majority of Pagan’s brass in the area headquartered their criminal affairs out of the House of Tattoos in Rocky Point and he and others spent a great deal of the summer and spring of 2010 planning the killings of a half-dozen Hells Angels Blair held responsible for his beating the previous year. At an east coast biker rally known as the “Roar on the Shore” in Wildwood, New Jersey on September 10, 2010, Blair gathered the Pagan’s and their affiliate clubs in a hotel suite and gave his doozy of a “die or prison” speech. Two days later he was indicted and in handcuffs thanks to undercover federal agents infiltrating Blair’s Long Island chapter and recording incriminating conversations that took place both at the House of Tattoos and the Roar at the Shore rally.

Faced with a life prison stint himself, Blair copped a plea and accepted a 15-25 year sentence in 2012. He’s serving his time behind bars in a federal correctional facility in Elkton, Ohio. His first eligible parole date won’t be until 2024 when he will be close to 50.

The post Road To Revenge: Pagan’s ‘Roadblock’ Blair Kept Flames Of Vengeance Lit In War Vs. Hells Angels After ’02 Hellraiser Ball Brawl appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Despite its reputation in some pop-culture circles as a creation of the media and aggressive music-industry marketing, the East Coast-West Coast Rap War was scary real and incredibly deadly. The bi-coastal blood feud seeing NYC’s Bad Boys Records and its founder Sean (Puffy) Combs square off against L.A.’s Death Row Records and its founder Marion (Suge) Knight lasted roughly a decade, with the violence starting in New York in the mid-1990s before moving west to Las Vegas and then finally California, where a majority of the homicides in the battle took place in the late 1990s and first half of the 2000s. The two most famous casualties of the war were all-time rap pillars Tupac Shakur of Death Row and Christopher (The Notorious B.I.G) Wallace of Bad Boy, but there were many more and nearly all of them remain unsolved today. Knight’s Death Row crew was linked to the notorious Bloods street gang while Combs and his Bad Boy brigade hitched their wagon to the equally-notorious Crips street gang for protection purposes and muscle. The overall cost of the conflict was a body count well into the double digits.

November 30, 1994 – The Quad Studios Shooting: Tupac Shakur is robbed, beaten, shot five times and left for dead as he arrived to record a verse on Bad Boy Records affiliate Little Shawn’s album at New York’s Quad Studios in Manhattan. The high-profile shooting and attempted murder sets off a decade of unrest in both Bad Boy and Death Row organizations. Puffy Combs and Tupac’s rapper protégé-turned-rival the Notorious B.I.G. were at the studio at the time recording B.I.G’s Junior Mafia group side project. Tupac blamed the Bad Boy contingent for either arranging the setup or knowing about it and not alerting him and the war was on, further instigated in subsequent months by Tupac’s accusatory comments to the press related to Combs and B.I.G and his feelings of betrayal.

September 23, 1995 – Suge Knight’s best friend and bodyguard Jake (The Violator) Robles is shot dead outside Atlanta’s Platinum City Club after Knight’s Death Row entourage scuffled with Puffy Combs’ Bad Boy camp inside the establishment with both record labels in attendance for a party thrown by Dirty South hip hop impresario Jermaine Dupree for his birthday. Combs’ bodyguard Anthony (Wolf) Jones is alleged to have pulled the trigger.

November 30, 1995 – Rapper, actor and one-time Tupac confidant Randy (Stretch) Walker is killed in a drive-by behind the wheel of his car on his way home from dropping his brother off in Queens following a night of partying. Walker’s murder fell on the one-year anniversary (almost to the exact minute) of Tupac’s shooting at Quad Studios which he was present for.

September 13, 1996 – The iconic Tupac Shakur succumbed to injuries suffered six days earlier when he was shot in the passenger’s side of Suge Knight’s BMW by an assailant in a passing vehicle while stuck in traffic just off the Las Vegas Strip headed to Knight’s nightclub for an after party thrown on the evening of the Mike Tyson-vs.-Bruce Seldon fight.

September 13-20, 1996 – In the week after Tupac’s death, a series of retaliatory shootings and slayings occurred in Los Angeles, estimated to have caused more than a half-dozen murders and injuries.

November 10, 1996 – Tupac’s childhood best friend and fellow hip hopper Yafeu (Kadafi) Fulu of the Tupac-backed Outlawz rap group is killed in Orange, New Jersey at the apartment of his girlfriend. Fulu was one of the only witnesses in Tupac’s murder.

March 9, 1997 – Oversized hip hop legend Christopher (The Notorious B.I.G) Wallace is shot to death sitting in the passenger’s seat of an SUV by an assailant in another vehicle after departing a party at L.A.’s Peterson Automotive Museum while on a trip to the west coast to promote his new album. Eerily, the album was titled Life After Death.

June 1, 1997 – One-time Suge Knight bodyguard Aaron (Heroin) Palmer – pronounced HAIR-RON – is killed in a drive-by at a traffic light in Compton, California on his way home from attending a Death Row-sponsored barbeque and touch football game

May 29, 1998 – Crips gang member Orlando (Baby Lane) Anderson, the reputed triggerman in Tupac’s murder, is killed in shootout in front of record store in Compton.

April 4, 2000 – Death Row affiliate and L.A. gangbanger, William (Willie the Chin) Walker, is killed sitting in van on a desolate dead-end Compton street, shot in the head at close range

April 25, 2000 – L.A. gangbanger Vence (Big V) Buchanan, the reputed triggerman in the “Chin” Walker hit, is kidnapped, tortured, beaten and shot to death, his body left in a Compton graveyard. Buchanan’s brutal murder was reportedly videotaped by the perpetrators, allegedly dispatched by Suge Knight.

March 25, 2001 – Death Row affiliate and L.A. gangbanger David (Tilted Brim Dave) Dudley, reportedly believed to be one of the assailants in the heinous Buchanan homicide, is killed in front of a friend’s house in Compton.

April 3, 2002 – Death Row affiliate Alton (Buntry) McDonald, Suge Knight’s best friend and former bodyguard, is killed at a gas station, shot to death as he filled up his tank. Like Dudley, McDonald was a suspect in Buchanan’s slaying. Dudley had been gunned down a year prior in front of McDonald’s home.

June 7, 2002 – L.A. gangbanger Eric (Scar) Daniels, believed to be the triggerman in McDonald’s murder, is murdered himself in a retaliatory strike said to be ordered by Suge Knight.

October 16, 2002 – Death Row affiliate Henry (Hen Dog) Smith, Suge Knight’s best friend and former bodyguard, is killed outside a fried chicken joint in Compton sitting in his jeep, shot six times in the head.

July 24, 2003 – Death Row affiliate and L.A. gangbanger Wardell (Poochie) Fouse, the alleged triggerman in the Notorious B.I.G hit, is killed on his motorcycle in drive by shooting in Compton. Fouse had survived at least three other attempts on his life during the previous five years, including being shot in the “Chin” Walker slaying.

November 11, 2003 – Bad Boy affiliate Anthony (Wolf) Jones and an associate of his named Lamont (Riz) Girdy, are killed outside the Atlanta nightclub Chaos after a party thrown by Jermaine Dupree’s SoSoDef Records. Wolf Jones was Puffy Combs’ former bodyguard and allegedly the triggerman in the Jake Robles murder practically a decade prior. Legendary drug kingpin Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory, the founder and leader of the transcendent Black Mafia Family (BMF), is the No. 1 suspect in Wolf Jones’ homicide.

September 23, 2015 – Crips gang member Terrence (Bubble Up) Brown, the reputed wheelman in Tupac’s murder, and an associate of his named Marquis (Wolf Da Boss) Tann are killed execution style at the Chief Keef Glo Shop marijuana dispensary in Compton rumored to be owned by rapper Keith (Chief Keef) Cozart. Tann managed the dispensary.

The post Rap’s Greatest Hits: The East Coast-West Coast Rap War Murder Timeline appeared first on The Gangster Report.